2012: The year in space (36 images)

This undated NASA image taken by Fifteen orbits of the recently launched Suomi NPP satellite shows a synthesized view of Earth showing the Arctic, Europe, and Asia, June 26, 2012. UPI/NASA

This NASA photo released on May 22, 2012 shows the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Dragon capsule, lifting off from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch is the company's second demonstration test flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, Program. During the flight, there will be a series of check-out procedures to test and prove Dragon's systems, including rendezvous and berthing with the International Space Station. If the capsule performs as planned, the cargo and experiments it is carrying will be transferred to the station. UPI/Alan Ault/NASA

Following an orbital path from China and Japan through wester Texas, the moon passes in front of the sun creating an annular eclipse in the skies over Monument Valley National Park, Arizona on May 20, 2012. This timelapse, composite image shows the many phases of the event as the sun descended beyond the buttes in the mid-western sky. .UPI/Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell

This undated NASA image shows star trails during a time lapse created by a composite of a series of images photographed from a mounted camera on the Earth-orbiting International Space Station, from approximately 240 miles above Earth, May 18, 2012. A total of 18 images photographed by the astronaut-monitored stationary camera were combined to create this composite. UPI/NASA